


my cold desire, to hear the boom-boom-boom of your heart

by gcpd rights (FinishedKitten)



Category: Gotham - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Sad, i love him so, manipulative, poor 514A, this was all written in about two hours let me know if i need to fix anything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 20:41:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17884862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FinishedKitten/pseuds/gcpd%20rights
Summary: 514A has been hiding out in wayne manor ever since the bridges blew. jeremiah is fascinated with the clone of his darling.





	my cold desire, to hear the boom-boom-boom of your heart

**Author's Note:**

> title is from kill of the night by Gin Wigmore also a prime wayleska song. as always thanks to the discord love y’all. i just really love 514A and want more for him.

to be fair to all parties involved, far stranger things have happened in gotham. surely a clone wasn’t as far out of the way as it seemed. after the bridges had blown gotham got even stranger somehow, basic survival trumped questions about the odder sides of gotham city as a whole. 

after the bridges blew and it he was being honest far far before, jeremiah made sure to keep tabs on bruce wayne. if he did anything at all jeremiah knew. this was how he liked things. he did not like surprises when it came to his darling. especially after the tunnel was finished to wayne manor, if there was something to know about bruce wayne, jeremiah knew it and hoarded the information like a jealous dragon. he could tell you anything you wanted to know, down to his darlings closest friend (it was himself but one could say selina now as much as jeremiah hated that) and his first kiss. (selina again. she came up far too much in his research, he was a jealous type always had been) 

as jeremiah swept through the manor, clearing it out and making sure that it was empty he came across a locked door that wasn’t locked the last time he invaded this house. every time he got the chance to come into his darling house felt like a gift, every part had to be explored and cataloged. (nobody’s lived here in months? who locked this?) a gentle knock on the door produced quiet sounds of someone stirring and moving around. (a vagrant? in bruce’s home? this can’t be allowed!) 

the door swung opened slowly as jeremiah prepared to deal with the vagrant and was instead met with his darlings face and a once over of this seeming impossibility showed him looking exactly like his bruce down to the full wardrobe of black. (this is....not possible? bruce is at haven.) a look of confusion slid into place over jeremiah's features as the imposter shifted uncomfortably. “i’m-i’m not him. i’m not bruce wayne. “ the clone stammered out at the sight of jeremiah’s gun, trying to back slowly out of the doorway. jeremiah took a step closer, invading the imposters space and forcing him back into the room. “you must forgive me, i’m going to need more of an explanation than that.” he drawled while cataloging every difference between his bruce and whatever this was in front of him. 

“well i’m a clone? the court of owls made me in case bruce wayne didn’t....cooperate with them. but one thing led to another and i’m still here.” the clone stammered out as he was backed into the room he’d been staying in. “i'm really nobody. i’ll leave if you want, i just didn’t know where else to go.” he said with an open expression, trying to appeal to this strangers better nature. 

jeremiah brought his gloved hand up to touch 514A’s face almost tenderly while his other hand slowly replaced his gun in his holster . the terrified boy in front of him was really no threat. a clone? how fascinating.” he murmured. “does bruce know about you?” he asked holding the clones face still while leaning in to try and find something different between this imposter and his darling boy. “yeah we’ve met. i tried to pretend to be him for a while. that was forever ago, i just keep to myself now. i just started staying here when the bridges blew and he moved out.” 514A explained, holding dead still as this stranger looked him up and down like a bug he wanted to pin to a wall. 

jeremiah circled the poor boy like he was prey, settling on the fact this really couldn’t be bruce wayne, that he had to be telling the truth. “well what are we to do with you then?” jeremiah asked close to his ear while standing behind the boy. “maybe don’t kill me? that’d be nice?” the boy said mostly genuine but with a slight edge to it. a smile spread over jeremiah's face, not so much unlike his brothers, as he started to laugh. “oh but i have such plans for you now. killing you would be such a waste!” jeremiah said coming back to the front of the clone and holding him at arm's length. 514A suppressed a shiver, something in this strangers eyes made him regret ever bunking down here in the first place but his words soothed that. it had been so long since somebody wanted him around, he stay far longer than was safe just to be useful to somebody even for a moment.

“what is your name boy? surely you aren’t called bruce wayne 2.0 or something garish like that i hope.” jeremiah murmured, still very much in poor 514a’s personal space. not that he minded of course, this was more human interaction than he’d had in months. “oh uh 514A. they didn’t really give us names at the lab.” he said almost embarrassed to not have a real answer for this mysterious man who took far more of an interest in him than everybody else. “mmmm that’s unfortunate. everybody deserves a name, don’t you think so, five’s?” jeremiah replied while tracing five’s face, still not entirely sure he’s not dreaming. a flush spreads it way across five’s face at the name, nobody’s ever given him a real name and insults don’t count, and the tenderness. both are staggering unfamiliar to the clone. “uh yeah. everybody should have a name.” he replied a second too late, somewhat overwhelmed as he leaned into the barely there touches jeremiah left over his face and his neck. 

“wonderful. my names jeremiah valeska. now we’re all properly acquainted.” jeremiah drawled just a few inches away from five’s face. (he blushes just like my bruce. precious) five’s let out a small shiver at the words, while not particularly caring what all was said, it was just more than the scraps he was used to. to be the center of somebody’s attention after so long felt like basking in the sun after a winter inside, like being given a feast after starving. five’s wasn’t about to question anything, lest he lose what little he’s already been given. 

“you look so much like him.” jeremiah says more to himself than anything else. “well i’m a clone. that’s kinda the point.” fives says with a bitter laugh. “but they didn’t need me so i got thrown out. not much use for a bruce wayne lookalike, nowadays is there?” he says trying to keep his tone light but the unmistakable jealousy slips through. jeremiah grins again, almost splitting his face in half, “oh darling, i can think of plenty of uses for a bruce wayne lookalike.” he says, his voice dripping with sticky sweet syrup wrapped around his true intentions, like a knife wrapped in velvet piercing your heart. the pain is only felt as the knife is twisted, something jeremiah has such knowledge of and no qualms using it on this defenseless lookalike. 

fives light flush turns scarlet at the insuations and his mouth opens and closes around words that won’t come out. jeremiah places a finger to his lips and shushes him. “now now don’t worry your pretty little head about anything.” he soothes in his unsteady tones. “there is much to be done and we’re running on such a tight schedule.” jeremiah takes a step back and looks fives up and down for what must be the hundredth time since they met. logically he knew five was intended to be a clone but still the resemblance! he would have to send his regards to huge strange if they ever met. “ tell me how much to do you about bruce wayne?” he asks curiously, eyes looking straight into fives soul. 

“lots. the court made me learn practically everything around him. why why do you ask?” fives replied fiddling with his hands, not entirely sure where this was going anymore. “well you see me and him” jeremiah makes a frankly over dramatic gesture at himself if both parties were going to be honest “have a connection, one that he seems intent on denying. but no matter, i had a realization.” he says pausing to bait fives into asking what the connection was. “how are you connected? and what does it have to do with me?” fives asks feeling more and more like the ground was slowly coming out from his feet. “we could have been bonded by love but he continues to be blind so i guess we just have to be bonded by hatred. it’s a shame really i would have treated him so well.” jeremiah mourns with a childish pout gracing his garish features. “i would have given him gotham, i would have worshiped the ground he walked on if he asked”

in hindsight this is where fives would admit to possibly making the biggest mistake of his rather short life if he was asked honestly. but that’s neither here nor there. 

“how ungrateful. ” fives interjected, his short life had been spent entirely in bruce wayne’s pompous shadow, he would take any shot he could get and this crazy in front of him seemed like a great way to get back at the billionaire asshole who caused his miserable life. jeremiah stopped his moment of self pity to cock his eyebrow up at the clone in front of him, full of surprises he’s coming to find out. “if- if i had somebody who was willing to give me a fraction of what you were willing to give him i wouldn’t ever let them go.” fives followed up with, still not sure how far he was going to go with that but the hole was already dug, might as well keep going. “hmm i can hazard nobody’s ever given you much of anything, have they five? you’ve been all alone for so long, no place to call home, no person to call your own?” jeremiah says sliding back into fives personal space and running his hand through the just too long hair to pass for the real bruce’s. five shudders, he wasn’t entirely wrong and more often than not nobody touched him except to cause pain. this whole soft touch and soft words were very quickly pulling him into a sense of security he’d never had. 

“poor little five. nobody ever treated you like they should.” jeremiah said in a voice that passed as kindness or the closest thing he could pretend it away to be. “all alone in this big old house, just waiting for the end, how sad darling.” he continued petting fives hair more than anything at this point. five leaned into the soft touch and ended up more putting his slight weight onto jeremiah's frame than anything else. his head falling to jeremiah's shoulder, if jeremiah really wanted to kill him it wouldn’t have come as a surprise for five but he was damned if he wasn’t going to pretend he was safe and loved for one moment. jeremiah cooed into fives ear quietly. “oh beautiful boy the plans i have for us together.” he took fives face into his hand oh so delicately and gazed deeply into the eyes that were his princes but not quite. there was a fear and a lifetime of pain behind them just different from his princes but he could pretend. jeremiah tenderly swiped his chemical white thumbs under fives eyes that welled with tears at the unexpected kindness. nobody ever said that jeremiah valeska had a lack of imagination. 

nobody ever said fives was an optimist either, this terrifying beautiful man only loved him beside of who he looked like but he could pretend as well. 

“now darling i have such plans for bruce and this city. care to join me?” 

fives took his hand without thinking. a few kind words and soft touches and he was firmly on the side of the beautiful man. 

“wonderful, now let’s get you all spruced up. we have such a big day planned!”


End file.
